Despite bulls' preference for IRCTC IPO, important to tread with caution

In the first two days of the three-day offer, the IPO was oversubscribed by 325 per cent

Some things stand out for Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC): it’s government-owned, it has exclusive rights to railway ticketing and catering, and, from points one and two, is more prone to policy risk.

It’s an innocent mistake to compare the ticketing platform to, say, MakeMyTrip or yatra.com -- sure, both sell tickets and tour packages online, but truth be told there is no benchmark or parallel to compare IRCTC with, as bulk of its revenue comes from catering services. This makes IRCTC’s public float unique, and it makes sense to tread with caution on it.

IRCTC is floating